ors and that he set off
one of them. The question is where the other two are. It wouldn't be so
very surprising, would it, if one or both of them turned out to be
waiting for intruders in the vault where he sealed away the loot?"

* * * * *

The night was cool. Wind rustled in the ground vegetation and the
occasional patches of trees. Otherwise the slopes were quiet. The sky
was covered with cloud layers through which the Mooncat drifted
invisibly. In the infrared glasses Dasinger had slipped on when he
started, the rocky hillside showed clear for two hundred yards, tinted
green as though bathed by a strange moonlight; beyond was murky
darkness.

"Still all right?" Duomart's voice inquired from the wrist communicator.

"Uh-huh!" Dasinger said. "A little nervous, but I'd be feeling that way
in any case, under the circumstances."

"I'm not so sure," she said. "You've gone past the two and a half mile
line from the generator. From what that Graylock monster said, you
should have started to pick up its effects. Why not take your shot, and
play safe?"

"No," Dasinger said. "If I wait until I feel something that can be
definitely attributed to the machine, I can keep the kwil dose down to
what I need. I don't want to load myself up with the drug any more than
I have to."

A stand of tall trees with furry trunks moved presently into range of
the glasses, thick undergrowth beneath. Dasinger picked his way through
the thickets with some caution. The indications so far had been that
local animals had as much good reason to avoid the vicinity of Hovig's
machine as human beings, but if there was any poisonous vermin in the
area this would be a good place for it to be lurking. Which seemed a
fairly reasonable apprehension. Other, equally definite, apprehensions
looked less reasonable when considered objectively. If he stumbled on a
stone, it produced a surge of sharp alarm which lingered for seconds;
and his breathing had quickened much more than could be accounted for by
the exertions of the downhill climb.

* * * * *

Five minutes beyond the wood Dasinger emerged from the mouth of a narrow
gorge, and stopped short with a startled exclamation. His hand dug
hurriedly into his pocket for the case of kwil needles.

"What's the matter?" Duomart inquired sharply.

Dasinger produced a somewhat breathless laugh. "I've decided to take the
kwil. At once!"

"You're